Daddy's Girl
by Jellybean82
Summary: After Dan has another heart attack it's up to Darlene to take care of the family.
1. Bad News

_*Ring, ring, ring*_

_*Ring, ring, ring*_

_*Ring, ring, ring*_

"Hello?" Darlene says impatiently, annoyed that someone has called and disrupted her work.

"Hold on, what are you saying? I can't understand you... Oh my God...I'm on my way."

She slams the phone down and runs to the bedroom and pulls a suitcase out of the closet. She tosses it down on the bed and begins to gather clothes from out of her dresser drawers. She stops for a minute and sits on the edge of the bed as she sobs into the ball of clothes she has just pulled out. She wipes her face, tosses the clothes into the suitcase, closes it and rushes to the livingroom and grabs her car keys. Just as she is about to walk out the door, she almost runs into her husband David.

"Where are you going?" He asks.

"I have to go back home." Darlene answers hysterically.

"Why, what happened?"

"Dad had a heart attack!"

"Oh no, how is he?"

"I don't know." She says sounding defeated "Becky called me all hysterical and I could barely understand her. All I could understand was dad had a heart attack and that she was there when it happened."

"Well let me drive you, you're in no condition to drive." David says trying to comfort his wife.

"You should stay with the kids. You guys can just come down tomorrow evening."

"Well sit down for a minute and get yourself together. You have a two-hour drive and you can't do it in this condition."

David takes Darlene by the arm and leads her to a chair in the kitchen. She sits down and puts her head in her hands.

"It's been so long since dad's other heart attack, I didn't even imagine this would happen again."

"I know." David says stroking her hair. " Does your mom know?"

"Not yet. I told Becky to wait until I got there and I'll call her. I want to see what's going on first. The last thing anyone needs is Becky getting mom all worked up on a cruise ship."

"Do you think she is going to want to come home?" He asks.

"I would think so... Hey, I was thinking if she doesn't have the money to fly back early that we could fly her and Jackie back. We have plenty of money in savings..."

"Of course..."

"I better get going. Don't tell the kids what happened yet. Just say Grandpa wasn't feeling good or something."

"Alright, Love you." David says as he gives Darlene a big hug.

"I love you too."

Darlene and David give each other a kiss and another long hug. David walks her out to her car and watches her pull out of the driveway as she makes the trip back to Lanford.


	2. Bright Lights, Long Hallways

The bright lights of the hospital hallway shine in Darlene's eyes as she slowly walks towards her dad's room. She takes her hand and blocks the light which is causing her headache to pound even harder, she is officially exhausted and emotionally drained. As she turns the corner she can hear her sister Becky's voice quivering as she is talking to someone. She slowly approaches afraid of what news she is about to hear.

"Darlene!" Becky yells as she starts to walk towards her.

"Damn." Darlene says under her breath. She was hoping Becky wasn't going to make a big scene, yet here she is yelling her name and running towards her with her arms wide open.

"I'm so glad you finally made it. Are you by yourself?" Becky asks looking past Darlene.

"Yeah, I'm alone." Darlene says as she gives Becky a hug. "David stayed home with the kids. They'll be down tomorrow."

"Well come on, I was just talking to the doctor."

Becky takes Darlene's hand and they walk back towards the doctor.

"Doctor Sampson, this is my sister Darlene."

"Hi." Darlene says as she shakes the doctor's hand.

"Well, as I was just telling Mrs. Healy, your father has indeed had a heart attack, but he is stable, that's why we have him in a room. Some further testing will need to be done to see if there was any damage done and what course of treatment to take from there, but he appears to be okay right now."

"Thank you." Darlene says slightly relieved.

The doctor walks off and goes into the nurses station to fill out charts. Darlene, slightly annoyed with Becky's dramatics slaps her on the arm.

"Ow, what was that for?" Becky says in shock.

"What the hell is wrong with you!"

"What do you mean?"

"You scared me to death Becky. I thought Dad was going to die because of you. "

"Well, sorry." Becky says sarcastically.

"For goodness sake, you're a physician assistant. You should know better than to freak someone out like that. You have the medical background, if you're freaking out we all freak out."

"Look, I said I was sorry. Its different when its your dad versus a complete stranger. I was thrown off. I just hope Dad doesn't need surgery."

"Yeah, me too. Have you talked to DJ?"

"No, I thought you were going to call everyone."

"I told you to let me call mom because you were freaking out. You could've called DJ."

"You asked did I talk to him, not did I call him. I did call him and he didn't answer the phone."

"You just said that you thought I was going to call everyone." Darlene says confused.

"Look, I don't know. I freaking tired Darlene. I did call DJ, I didn't get answer."

"Did you leave a message?"

"No! I'm not going to tell him Dad had a heart attack in a voicemail! "

"You could have told him to call you back!"

"He's not going to...you know he screens his calls. He claims he's always so busy."

"I swear I have to do everything." Darlene says as she whips out her cell phone.

"Wait, you can't use cell phones in here, you have to go out the doors into the hall." Becky says trying to stop her.

"Well come on."

Darlene walks off as Becky follows behind her. They leave the Cardiac Care unit and stand in the hallway as Darlene once again starts to dial DJ's number.

"He's not going to answer." Becky says skeptically.

"But I bet he'll call me back."

The phone rings several times before it finally goes to voicemail.

"_Hello, this is DJ Conner. I'm unable to come to the phone now, but leave your name and number and I will get back to you." *BEEP*_

"David Jacob, you better answer the damn phone when we call you! If I don't hear back from you in the next five minutes I am going to hop on the next plane to California, hog tie your ass and bring you back here myself... This is Darlene, call me back.. love you!"

"Oh yeah, like he's really going to call back after you just threatened him." Becky says.

Next thing you know the phone is ringing.

"Oh, looky there..it DJ!" Darlene says laughing as she answers the phone. "Hello DJ."

"_Hey Darlene, what's up."_

"Didn't you see where Becky called?"

_"Yeah, but I've been busy."_

"Whatever, we were calling to tell you that Dad is in the hospital. He had a heart attack."

_"Oh man, how is he?"_

"Alright now, the doc said he's stable but they still have some testing to do to see the extent of the damage, if any."

_"Alright, I'll see if I can get a flight out of here tonight, if not I'll try to leave in the morning."_

"Okay, call me and let me know. If you get my voicemail, leave a message."

_"Alright sis, see you later."_

"Bye." Darlene says as she hangs up the phone.

"Are you ready to go see Dad?" Becky asks.

"Not really, I hate seeing him in the hospital"

"I know, me too but I don't want him to wake up in the room alone."

"Yeah, come on. Lets go."

Becky puts her arm around Darlene and they make the walk back down the long, bright hallway to see their father and make sure that he does not wake up alone.


	3. Not Going Back

A grumbling sound echos throughout the room as Dan struggles to adjust himself in the uncomfortable hospital bed. Darlene, who is sitting across the room looks up from the screen of her laptop to her father who she watches for a minute before finally getting up to help.

"Need some help?" She says as she slowly makes her way across the room.

"Darlene?" Dan says as he slides himself up in bed.

"The one and only." She says "Here, let me help you."

As Darlene goes in to help, Dan throws his hand up signaling that he wants to do it himself. Darlene takes a step back and watches until he gets himself settled.

"How do you feel?" She asks as she helps him adjust a pillow behind his back.

"I'm alright... what are you doing here?" Dan asks

"What kind of question is that? You had a heart attack...I'm here to check on you." Darlene says as she grabs her laptop and the chair she was sitting in and carries them across the room and sits them next to Dan's bed.

"You don't need to check on me Darlene. Go back to Chicago you have a family and a job to think about, I'll be fine."

"Dad come on, I'm not going back yet. Harris and Peyton are fine with David. You know I only go into work on Mondays and Fridays and the rest of the time I work from home. They know I had to come back home so I'll just be working from here and Skype in for the meetings on Monday and Friday. I'm fine...I'm worried about you."

"Don't be, I said I'm fine."

"If you were fine, you wouldn't be in this hospital bed. Anyway just to update you on everything Becky is at work, she will be stopping in later. DJ will be here this afternoon he couldn't get a flight until this morning. Mom and Jackie will be flying out tomorrow. And David and the girls will be here tonight."

"Oh, no... I don't want your mom and Jackie to cut their cruise short. They've been looking forward to this."

"Dad, they're only cutting it short by two days."

Dan rubs his hand through his hair and looks at the window.

"Hey can you open the blinds for me?" He asks Darlene.

"Sure." She says as she walks to the window and carefully opens the blinds. Once the blinds are open she leans against the ledge and stares out of the window. She watches the cars on the street as they drive by and lets out a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong Sport?" Dan asks.

"Nothing."

"Come here." Dan says as he motions for Darlene to come closer to him. "Sit here."

Dan has always had a way of telling when something was wrong with Darlene despite her stoic nature. Its was just something in her tone of voice that concerned him.

"I'm gonna be fine little girl. You have a lot more to worry about than me. You need to focus your energy on David, Harris, and Peyton . They need you more than I do."

Dan lets out a chuckle as he finishes his sentence.

"What's so funny?" Darlene asks as she carefully slides off the bed and sits back down in her chair."

"You and David have been married sixteen years. Your daughters are sixteen and seven years old. It still trips me out."

"Yeah me too...Don't tell anyone I told you this but David and I have been talking about having another baby."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. I told him if we do, this will be the last one."

"Wow...I tell you Darlene, you remind me more and more of your mother."

"Oh God.. here come the comparisons."

"Really you do. When you were younger I always thought you were just like me but the older you got the more I realized you _are_ your mother."

"I'm nothing like her, so stop it."

"You've been saying that since you were fourteen." Dan says with a smile.

"Because it's not true."

"Alright, alright... I'll stop." he says as he lets out a hearty laugh. "So have they told you anything? Am I gonna get out of here soon?"

"I think you'll be here for a couple of days at least. They said they just need to run some more tests to make sure that there isn't any damage to your heart. I'm sure you'll be fine. We got through the last one, we'll get through this one."

"Yeah, lets hope."

"You will, besides I already paid for your Bears season tickets so you don't have a choice but to get better." Darlene says as she laughs

Dan laughs and shakes his head "You're something else Darlene."

"I know." She says as she shoot him a quick smile and opens her laptop and resumes her work.


End file.
